In a Roman agora
I once bought felicity
for thirty-eight camels
and an ounce of salt.
And my oracular destiny wove
the silks of the oasis merchants,
a sacred seal on the chakras of Arabia
placed on the night-lit stones of Thebes,
the scarlet chant of the mystics
meandering on the glyphs of the temple keepers,
an engraved whisper on lunar amulets.
But the desert’s tempest was a mirage,
mesmerising the cobra’s raqs sharqi,
a blot of scorpion’s poison,
ancient like cursed sand
on the wind-worn sandals of the Bedouins
sleeping their tea-leaves
beneath the scars of the tropic of Cancer.
In a Roman agora
I once sold felicity
for thirty-eight camels
and an ounce of salt.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Indiana Jones meets Allan Quatermain.Love it amigo della fuerto anemio. All the best and more Roger